Editorial To Vima: A crisis one hopes to avoid

Maybe it was not necessary for the Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse debacles to come along for the winds of uncertainty to blow in the global economy.

They had already been stirred by the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, and a rise in inflation in the eurozone.

If the aforementioned events had not transpired, one might have confronted the problems of the two banks with greater composure, especially when everyone believes that the two cases are not linked.

The problem is that when the banks sneeze, the economy catches a cold.

That explains the speed with which overarching banking organisations in the US and Switzerland acted in order to limit and manage the problem.

This may also explain the calm of the European Central Bank, which hiked interest rates as it had announced, with the belief that the Americans and Swiss are mature enough to put their own houses in order.

In any event, all seemed to have learned the lessons of the 2008 crisis, when negligence, delays, and panic allowed a problem (Lehman Brothers) to become almost a global crisis.

It is believed that the global banking system today is much more mature and prepared to handle such situations.

That is confirmed by all competent domestic authorities as regards the Greek banking system. They note that the decade of bailout memorandums and EU fiscal oversight permitted a clean-up and bolstering of banks.

One hopes that they will all be proven right.

In any event, amidst the generalised uncertainty in the global economic confluence of events – and the understandable uncertainty caused by Greece’ three-month electoral campaign – the last thing one wants is turbulence or tumult in the financial system.

It is obviously a great advantage that the country is entering this period of uncertainty at a time that its economic situation is the best in 15 years.

That is not in order to nonchalantly destroy all that has been achieved, but rather in order to lay the groundwork for security and seriousness after the elections.